Angels and Demons - The First Arc
A second beginning

The Light wasn’t used to being alone, it wasn’t used to leaving the emptiness it called home, it wasn’t used to reality and its constraints. The world was both too little and not enough, like a shoe worn on the wrong foot.

For the Light, walls might as well be things one walks through - that is why it entered the apartment like a breeze through an open window - , but colors never shine as bright as it can picture them, and sounds never ring as melodious. Perhaps that was the place’s fault, though.

The flowers on the flaking wallpaper of the room weren’t real flowers. The wooden bench wasn’t a real tree, and, in fact, had come from many. The metal frame of the bed still remembered what it was like to be dug up from underground. The sweat-drenched sheets still longed to live as plants once again.

Unseen, the Light lay the closest it could manage to hand on the girl’s forehead. She was too hot but alive. The boy watching her would have noticed if she wasn’t.

What happened next was its fault, really. It should have seen the knife before the girl sliced it through its ethereal form. Because the Light had forged that knife itself, the Blake’s cut stung.

It hadn’t felt pain for such a long time.

“Briz? What happened? Why… What is that?” The boy jumped to his feet, and held the girl back.

“Greetings.” The Light said.

“It’s an angel, Claud.” The girl’s voice was still raspy. “Or something like it. I swear I felt it inside me, somehow.”

The boy turned to it and demanded. “What did you do to her?”

“I cured her.”

“Why should we believe you would do it? You’re probably tricking us.”

“I would be lying if I said I do not have a veiled interest in your survival, but my main objective in this visit was rectifying the wrongdoing of a creature I once would have called mine.”

“Well-”

The girl silenced him, reaching for his arm. “It’s telling the truth.” She glared at the Light. “At least, I think. I… I feel better.”

“What do you want from us, then?” The boy asked it.

“I wish to leave you with my blessing, so that you may stand alongside your friend, or against them, should the need present itself.”

Silently, the two humans shared a concerned look.

“You already own my knife…” the Light added. It didn’t understand the minds of mortals, and so, when moments such as this arrived, it never knew how to persuade them.

“What do you get out of it?” The girl asked.

“The possibility of seeing angels and demons banished to a plane where their endless war will not cause harm.”

“If that is so important to you, why did you let them come here in the first place?” The boy insisted.

“I…” The Light sighed. “On one hand, I value order above all else. But I was naive enough to grant freedom to my followers, and they used it against the natural order of things.”

Silence. It wasn’t real silence, because the Light heard what the others didn’t - the dreams of a young child in the floor above, the hummed lullaby of an old man, the dying cries of an angel in the skies above -, but it was close enough.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” the girl said. “All I’ve done until now was to get in trouble and make things worse.”

The boy’s eyes widened, his lips pursed. “That’s not true…”

“You do not want my power, then? Very well. What about you, boy?”

“She’s wrong. If it has to be one of us, she’s the one who you have to choose, without a doubt. Only she is courageous enough. I’d just run away at the critical moment, and many people would be hurt because of it.”

“If you ‘value order’, as you said,” the girl interrupted. “Then it would be pretty stupid to pick the one person who would laugh if the world burned down.” Then, seeing the Light’s confusion. “That’s me, by the way.”

“You are making it difficult,” it lamented.

“No, I’m not.” The girl crossed her arms. “Pick him.”

“No, you must pick her.”

“I think… there is a possibility that I might, for the sake of balance, share my powers between the two of you.”

The boy’s brow furrowed. “For the sake of balance?”

“If you are as opposite as you claim, it would only be right. Do you accept?”

“Tell us where Ange is first.” The girl demanded.

“I did not inform you that I knew of their whereabouts, but indeed, I do. They are in the city, for now, but they do not count on staying long. They think they are sparing you by doing so, which is not necessarily true. I believe that recent events have shaken them too much.”

“Oh, that kid…” The boy muttered. “We have to go after them.”

“Claud, we have to take this deal. It’s too good.”

“You know what? For once, I think you’re right. We’ll need all the help we can get.”